Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Former TX Firefighter Back In Custody

HOUSTON - A former Houston firefighter who shot and killed a wrecker driver has been arrested again -- this time for allegedly violating his probation.

Barry Crawford was convicted of shooting and killing Steven Hardin back in 1998.

Hardin was in the process of towing Crawford's truck in Humble when the firefighter came out of his home and shot the wrecker driver once in the chest.

Crawford was found guilty of murder but his sentence was a disappointment to the victim's family: 10-years probation.He was supposed to perform community service and pay restitution to the victim's family as conditions of that probation.

Hardin's family said they had been receiving checks for token amounts ($1.24, in one case) but even that has stopped.

"He has paid no restitution since January of this year," the victim's mother, Carolyn Hardin, told FOX 26. "He's basically got away with murder. And laughed the whole time he's done it."

Andy Kahan, the Mayors Crime Victims Director, said Crawford also has not logged any community service hours since 2007.

"You would have thought that he would have done everything humanly possible to make sure that he was in compliance (with the terms of his probation)," said Kahan. "But he consistently throughout the years just said, 'I'm not doing it and you're not gonna do anything to me.' So he reaped what he sowed."

Crawford is jailed without bond. At an upcoming hearing, the judge could order him imprisoned for ten years.

Had the former firefighter been able to stay out of trouble for another 9 months, he would have been released from court supervision.